The Official Publication of SWALL:
The Southwestern Association of Law Libraries
A Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries

Spring 2003, Vol. 33 No. 3

Headnotes

The Legislative Reference Library of Texas recently
launched a new Web site: http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/. The new site
offers content in four major areas: Legislative Information,
Research Tools, What's New, and Citizen Resources.

_ Expanded legislative intent
information can assist researchers in compiling legislative
history and intent. Enhancements include descriptions of various
types of bill analyses and where to locate them, information on
nonsubstantive revisions, and helpful phone numbers of
legislative offices. The steps involved in legislative intent
research can be viewed individually or as one list.

_ Vetoed bills are available
from 1874 through 2001 in PDF files. The collection, compiled
from the General and Special Laws of Texas, includes veto
proclamations of governors, entries in the House Journals and
Senate Journals, as well as Governors' Letters, and Governors'
Press Memos.

_ Index to Sections Affected
back to the 74th Legislature (1995), showing how legislation
would or did affect Texas statutes, codes, and session laws.

_ Amendments to the Texas
Constitution, from the 16th Legislature (1879) through the 77th
Legislature (2001), are searchable by legislative session or
article, with constitutional amendment election outcome and vote
totals.

_ Biographical information about
members and leaders of the legislature is available. Also
included are biographies of Governors, Lieutenant Governors of
Texas, and Speakers of the House. Coverage of this collection
extends from 1846 through the present. The Web site also
includes rosters of members of the Legislature (currently
available back to 1937) with name, district number, term of
service, political party, and home city and county.
Additionally, the Web site has legislative profiles back to the
74th Legislature (1995) with bill statistics, links to session
summaries, and membership statistics. Member rosters and session
overview pages are also accessible under Legislative Information
via the "Session-years" list.

Under "Research Tools" members of the public may
access:

_ Legislative interim committee
information, including committee charges and a list of members.
This information includes all committees from 1977 through the
present. Committee reports are available since 1981. Reports may
be searched by session, subject, committee name, or keyword, and
charges may be searched by subject or keyword. A "browse
committee list" feature is also available for browsing all
committees for a particular session.

_ Texas, state and municipal,
and federal government links and descriptions.

"Citizen Resources" assists the public in
contacting legislators and becoming involved in the legislative
process. Information in this section includes:

_ Forms of address for state and federal
government officials

_Links to a variety of resources about the
law-making process in Texas

_ A legislative glossary

_Texas bill
status hotline availability

_The Chief Elected and Administrative Officials of Texas.
This is a guide to statewide officials, the Texas Legislature, and
the Texas delegation to the U.S. Congress

_A guide to the Texas state
budget, including general budget background papers, links to
legislative budget committees, and a list of appropriation bills and
session laws

"What's New" provides lists of new books
received in the library, bill statistics and a bibliography of
recently received books, reports, and other documents available for
circulation to the Texas legislative community.

In addition, the right-hand side of the LRL Web
site links to committee hearings scheduled for that day and links to other Texas government
sites. It also provides information about the Legislative Reference
Library of Texas and its staff.

Please note that some features of the web site
are only available in the library/Capitol Complex. Our hope is that
the new site will be helpful to our colleagues and we welcome your
feedback and suggestions; please email them to
webmaster@lrl.state.tx.us.